Each year in September, volunteers from across the world come together to cleanup a beach, waterway, estuary or river near them. Together, they celebrate International Coastal Cleanup Day in the most epic way.

This year was no different and like so many years before, the Two Oceans Aquarium organised a cleanup for 21 September. Not only was it ICC, but also, with the support of The Beach Co-op, we hosted our fourth Trash Bash of the year.

The morning’s weather prediction wasn’t all that favourable, but that didn’t stop 260 people from coming out and showing their support and to cleanup Monwabisi Beach. Thankfully, the rain only set in when we were nearly done and just about everyone had the opportunity to scour the beach for litter. The cleanup at Monwabisi contributed 616kgs of trash to the statistics that will be collated from around the world. Some notable finds were: a lot of clothing, fishing line, straws, lollipop sticks, plastic bottles, and as always, plastic, plastic and more plastic.

What is International Coastal Cleanup Day?

International Coastal Cleanup Day is one of the biggest voluntary events across the globe. Started 30 years ago in Texas, the day has grown to include more than 100 countries and hundreds of thousands of volunteers. In 2018, more than one million volunteers took part and collected approximately 10 million kilograms of trash. The top ten trash items read like a who’s who of human ignorance. Cigarette butts came out tops with 5,7 million collected, followed by food wrappers at 3,7 million and straws and stirrers at 3,6 million.

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate International Coastal Cleanup Day 2019. A special thank you goes out to K-Way for the sponsorship of a wonderful jacket as a prize, and to John Dory's for their contribution of vouchers as prizes. And to SPAR Western Cape - all the kiddies who received a Puppet Stories children's book, say thank you very much.